Dear dream diary
by planet p
Summary: After the misadventure that was their holiday in Dark angel, Peri has forebodings about taking another holiday, and just wants to return home.


**Dear dream diary **by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _Doctor Who_ or any of its characters.

**Author's Notes **Written in 2006. Set after _Dark angel_, I guess.

* * *

Peri screamed and sat up in her bed. She had been dreaming about an old church she had visited often as a child. She had gone to talk to a girl who lived there. The girl was, of course, dead, and had been for a very long time. The girl had been about eight when she had died of a fever. Her name was Daisy. Peri and Daisy were good friends, and they talked of many things, especially cute boys like Jake McFarlane. Peri liked Jake a lot, and sometimes she imagined that he would ask her to marry him and they would have a big cake. Then Peri's dad died and she moved away, to a big city. She was scared at first and missed Daisy every day, but then she met a girl called Daday and they became best-friends. Peri forgot all about Daisy. In Peri's dream she had been walking through the old church, it had felt eerie and the light was funny, then she had come to Daisy's grave and knelt down beside it. She had tried to explain why she hadn't come to talk to her, but Daisy had gotten mad. A tiny dead hand had reached up from the earth and seized her ankle. Peri screamed and screamed and screamed, but nobody came. Daisy wanted to drag her down into the earth, so that she could never run away again, so that Peri would never leave her again. And just as the earth had opened up to swallow her, she had awoken.

Taking great shuddering breaths, Peri leant across in her bed and switched the lamp on the dresser on. The clock on the dresser read 4am. She didn't want to go back to sleep now so she pulled a book out of a drawer and started reading. Botany always had a way of calming her down. When she returned back to Earth she was going to college to study Botany.

After she'd had breakfast Peri went to the console room to see if the Doctor was up yet. He was making notes in the logbook. He looked up when Peri came in. "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?" Peri frowned, her smoky eyes clouded with concern.

"Why did you leave me?"

"What- Doctor, what's wrong with you?"

The Doctor looked back down at the logbook. "Dear girl, do not assume that there is something wrong with me just because I am doing something you Earthlings would call 'normal'." Peri opened her mouth, but shut it again. She looked around the room. It seemed strange. Something was different. Peri shook her head, she was being silly. "Stop it! Stop laughing!"

Peri spun around to face the Doctor. "I'm not laughing."

"Yes you were. I heard you. You were laughing at me. You called me a 'geek'. I heard it!"

Peri crossed her arms. "I did not!"

The Doctor stood up now. "You did!"

"NO, I DID NOT!"

The Doctor stormed off and slammed the door. Peri ran after him but he had disappeared into some room or through some door that was not always there. She kicked the wall. This day was not getting any better!

By dinner the Doctor had decided to come out of hiding. Peri didn't look at him as she served up the dinner, spaghetti, but stared at his plate instead. "I still didn't do it!" she burst out.

The Doctor sniffed and looked the other way. It seemed he had decided to ignore her. Grumpily, she thumped herself down on a chair and picked up some noodles on her fork, except when she looked down at her plate the noodles had disappeared and were replaced by great squirming maggots. She screamed and dropped her fork. The Doctor was eating his own dinner as though Peri hadn't spoken, or indeed screamed. She made to yell out to him, but when she looked back he was gone.

She could hear music playing softly through the halls. Wandering up a few doors, she emerged into a vast hall, except there were no seats. An old record player sat on a stool in a corner. It looked as if it was meant to be a dance, but no one had turned up. Peri turned back to the door, and backed away, closer into the centre of the room. The Doctor stood in front of her, then they were dancing, and the music was singing of killing and war and children without teddies or doggies because the doggies had been taken away to be eaten. Peri felt sick. She missed a beat and stepped on the Doctor's foot. He was yelling at her. She screamed back and ran from the room. Out in the corridor it was silent again. Peri brushed her tears away and sniffed.

When she woke again it was the next day. 1pm. Peri couldn't understand how she had slept so long. She went to the console room where the Doctor was running diagnostics. Peri turned to watch the screen. They were traveling towards Earth. And Earth was getting closer and closer and closer… Peri turned to the Doctor. "Are we going to Earth?"

"Yes."

"What are we gonna do there?"

"Crash! Boom! All dead!"

Peri laughed. "Don't be silly!" She stared into his face. He wasn't being silly! "No! No!" she screamed and ran over to the console and started pushing buttons.

The Doctor ran over, laughing, and pulled her away. "What can a stupid Earthling like you do? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!"

Peri screamed and kicked him. "That's not true. I can do loads of things. Loads of things you can't do. You're just stuck up! I hate you!"

He frowned. "I hate you too. No big deal."

Peri shouted at him. "I wanna go home! I wanna go home! Let go of me." She pushed him away and he stumbled into the wall.

He nodded towards the screen. "Home wants you back too." They were going to crash! They were going to die! She held her hands over her ears and screamed. "Peri! Peri! Perpugilliam Brown, we're here! We're home! Earth." Peri opened her eyes. They hadn't crashed. The Doctor was standing in the doorway. "Come and see. It's the sea." He pointed. Great crashing waves hit against the rocks below the cliffs the TARDIS stood by. The Doctor had gone outside. Peri went to join him.

"It's a long way down."

The Doctor nodded. "It would hurt if you fell. It would hurt a lot."

Peri stared at him. "I'm not gonna stand so close. I don't wanna fall."

"No." The Doctor shook his head. A bitter wind swept past the TARDIS. Peri shivered. The Doctor stepped closer to her. She smiled. "Are you cold?"

"Yeah."

He nodded and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She stepped closer to him. His brown eyes swirled like the waves in the ocean. She shut her eyes, waiting… Then he pushed her, and she was falling, falling into the sea, where a great monster reared up from within the waves, ready to swallow her…

* * *

The Doctor was shaking her. "Peri? Peri!"

She sat up, momentarily dazed by the bright lights. She was in a room. It looked like a hospital. The doctor stared back at her, his eyes over large. Peri backed away from him. "Go away from me!"

"Peri, it's me!"

"It may take a while for her memory to properly re-intergrate," a nurse was saying close by in a knowledgeable voice. "Everything's a bit all over the place, it was a pretty big whack."

The Doctor nodded. "Peri?"

"What?! I'm not a five-year-old!"

"You're not?"

"No!"

"That's good. Now tell me your name."

"You know my name!"

"I do?"

"Yes! You said it just before."

"So Peri's your name?"

"Yes!" She sounded annoyed.

The Doctor smiled. "Peri?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Try not to fall down the stairs next time, will you?"

"No, Doctor. I won't. It hurts."

"It does." The Doctor rubbed his eyes and leant back in his seat.

"You know, I had a strange dream? You wanna hear?"

"Uh-huh. Tell me about this strange dream. Was I in it?"

Peri laughed. "It rained didn't it?"

"I told you not to run."

Peri laughed again. "It was that silly post truck. I was watching it and then I slipped."

The Doctor shook his head. "You do need to be more careful running down steps and watching postal trucks. Perhaps you just need a bit more practice, then you could do it in your sleep…"

Peri burst out laughing. "You're a geek."

"So are you."

"I know."


End file.
